The invention relates to the transmission of repeated graphical objects to a printer.
Electronic documents often contain multiple copies of the same graphical objects. A common example is fonts. Conventional operating systems, such as Microsoft.RTM. Windows95, and printer drivers typically have a defined process for optimizing transmission of characters. However, electronic documents also often contain multiple copies of other raster or vector objects. Conventional printer drivers typically do not perform optimization of transmissions for these graphical objects.
To cause a printer to draw a graphical object repeatedly, an application program typically makes repeated "drawing") calls to the operating system. Each repeated drawing call may include different coordinates or other attributes. The operating system transmits each call to a printer driver which in turns transmits a request to a printer to render the graphical object on media such as paper. Accordingly, the printer driver repeatedly transmits the same graphical object to the printer.
Conventional printers typically store graphical objects as they are received. When the printer driver repeatedly transmits the same graphical object to such a printer, the printer typically stores multiple copies of the same graphical object. In order to be able to store these copies, the printer requires a large memory.
In addition, each transmission to a printer typically requires time proportional to the amount of data transmitted. When the printer driver repeatedly transmits a large graphical object to the printer, a large amount of time may be consumed.